Rodney riots

The Rodney riots were riots and civil disturbances in Kingston, Jamaica in October 1968.

The riots were inspired when the Jamaican government of Hugh Shearer banned Guyanese university lecturer Dr. Walter Rodney from returning to his teaching position at the University of the West Indies. Rodney, a historian of Africa had been active in the Black power movement, and had been sharply critical of the middle class in many Caribbean countries. Rodney was an avowed socialist who worked with the poor of Jamaica in an attempt to raise their political and cultural consciousness.

When Rodney attended a black writers' conference in Montreal, Canada in October 1968 the government took the opportunity to ban him from returning, citing among other things trips to Cuba and the USSR as justification.

On learning of the ban, students at UWI, Mona began a demonstration under the leadership of the Guild of Undergraduates, closing down the campus. They then proceeded to march first to the prime minister's residence, and then to the parliament building in Kingston. On the way many more demonstrators joined in, and eventually the disturbance became increasingly violent spreading across the city. Eventually, several people were killed and there were millions of dollars in property damages.

The riots were part of an emerging black consciousness movement in the Caribbean, and played a role in the mutiny of soldiers in Trinidad and Tobago two years later.

See also

• Protests of 1968
• Black Power Revolution

External links

• Michael O. West (November 2005). "WALTER RODNEY AND BLACK POWER: JAMAICAN INTELLIGENCE AND US DIPLOMACY" (PDF). African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies. 1 (2). ISSN 1554-3897. Retrieved 2011-06-26. 
• Walter Rodney and Heresy

Protests of 1968
Movements	1968 movement in Italy African-American Civil Rights Movement Anti-nuclear movement Black Consciousness Movement Black Power movement Black Power Revolution Chicano Movement Cultural Revolution Gay liberation German student movement Hippie movement Human rights movement in the Soviet Union Mexico 68 Northern Ireland civil rights movement Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War Prague Spring Red Power movement Sexual revolution The Troubles Women's liberation movement
Events	1968 Polish political crisis 1968 student demonstrations in Yugoslavia 1968 Democratic National Convention protest activity 1968 Red Square demonstration Båstad riots Battle of Valle Giulia Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968 Central Park be-ins Columbia University protests of 1968 East L.A. walkouts King assassination riots March of the One Hundred Thousand May 1968 events in France Memphis Sanitation strike Occupation of the Old Student House Occupation of the Student Union Building Poor People's Campaign Presidio mutiny Rodney riots Third World Liberation Front strikes of 1968 Tlatelolco massacre
Related	Anti-Capitalism Black Power Counterculture of the 1960s Desegregation Flower power Free love Hippie Antisemitism in Poland New Left Racism in the United States School discipline Second-wave feminism Segregation in Northern Ireland Student activism Vietnam War Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia